Fitbit Surge review

Fitbit has long been one of the leading lights in the fitness tracker arena, but the Surge is a definite departure from a typical tracker. In fact it has more in common with a GPS sports watch than Fitbit’s usual devices.

While most fitness trackers are designed to be worn all the time, and potentially in conjunction with your regular watch, the Surge is attempting to be an all-in-one device – fitness tracker, GPS sports watch and, since you need to wear it every day, essentially a replacement for your regular watch.

See all the best fitness trackers and smartwatches here

For some this could be the answer to wearing a device on both wrists, plus having a third device for exercising. However, while sports watches and smartwatches are being designed to look more and more like traditional timepieces, the Surge doesn’t make any such efforts. It basically looks like a really big fitness tracker.

There are three colour choices on offer – black, blue and tangerine. My review sample was tangerine and it’s certainly bright – it would look fine in the gym, or when you’re out for a run, but not so much with a shirt and tie. There’s a very secure buckle in evidence, and it won’t come loose no matter how active you are.

Obviously aesthetics are a very personal thing, but personally I’m not convinced I’d want to wear a Surge as an everyday watch - while it would pretty odd to wear it on your dominant wrist with a regular watch on the opposite hand. But, let’s assume that you like the idea of wearing the Surge as your “one device does all” solution and explore what it actually does.

The Surge is big, much bigger than the Fibit Charge, which itself is larger than the Fitbit Flex. In fact it’s safe to say that the Surge is the largest fitness tracker I’ve ever worn, but to be fair, it’s also the most feature packed.

The Surge is dominated by a large touch-sensitive LCD display. You can swipe the screen left or right to cycle through the plethora of data that it’s constantly recording. There are also three buttons around the casing that are used to initiate and select certain functions.

There’s an optical heart rate monitor built into back of the Surge, and it will measure and log your heart rate constantly throughout the day. The Surge will log your heart rate every five seconds during normal usage, and every second if you’re exercising.

The steps you take throughout the day are logged, as is every flight of stairs you climb. The Surge will use the data it gathers to also estimate the distance you’ve travelled and the calories you’ve burned. Like all Fitbit devices, the Surge will discern between a gentle stroll and a power-walk, logging ‘active minutes’ when you’re pushing yourself a little harder.

But where the Surge really differs from other Fitbit devices is in its ability to track actual training and exercise sessions. With GPS functionality built into it, the Surge can measure your speed, distance and pace over time as you train. So, if you’re a regular runner or cyclist, you can use the Surge to track all your training sessions, negating the need for a dedicated running watch or bike computer.

The GPS tracking is pretty good, and the Surge turned in results that were in keeping with both TomTom and Garmin running watches. You can configure the Surge to give you vibrating alerts based on distance or time – I had it alert me at every kilometre mark while running.

While the Fitbit app and web portal aren’t really geared towards training sessions, you can link your Fitbit account to other apps such as Strava or Runkeeper, allowing you to use the Surge to track your training sessions, while exporting the results to your platform of choice.

As far as fitness tracking goes, however, the Fitbit app is great – it’s easy to see all the key data and very simple to navigate. You can track your food intake from within the app, and although it has a UK food database, the better option would be to link to your MyFitnessPal account – if you want to keep a food diary, MyFitnessPal makes it very easy.

The web portal is just as impressive, and thanks to the wireless USB dongle that comes bundled with the Surge, you can sync your data wirelessly whenever you’re near your computer, as well as via your phone.

As well as adding sports watch functionality to the Surge, Fitbit has also thrown some smartwatch features into the mix. Like the Fitbit Charge, the Surge will display caller ID data when your phone rings, allowing you to decide whether the call is worth taking before retrieving your phone from your pocket.

The Surge will also alert you when a text message arrives on your phone, and allow you to read it. But that’s as far as the alerts go, which is a shame given Surge’s large screen. By contrast, the Garmin Vivosmart HR will display alerts and messages from pretty much every app on your phone, including, ironically enough, the Fitbit app.

Fitbit estimates that the Surge will last for around seven days on a single charge, and if all you’re using it for is activity tracking it might come close. However, if you’re running every day, or even every other day, you’ll be charging the Surge far more often than that.

You’ll probably choose to charge the Surge overnight, while you’re not active, but then that then means that you won’t be tracking your sleep patterns, assuming that’s of importance to you. We’re still somewhat dubious about the actionable benefits of the sleep tracking provided by any of these devices.

And then there’s the price. You can find it online for around £150 without much trouble, it’s still pretty pricey compared to the competition. In fact the Surge is more expensive than the excellent TomTom Spark - TomTom has added fitness tracking functionality to a class leading sports watch, which somehow seems more useful than adding sports watch functionality to a fitness tracker.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that the Fitbit Surge is a feature packed fitness device, but all those features just don’t seem to gel in the package provided. The Surge is big and bulky for a fitness tracker, and arguably not good-looking enough to be worn as your everyday watch, all of which means it struggles to make a case for itself.

Throw in the high price tag and there are clearly better fitness trackers, and better sports watch options out there. It’s a shame, because on paper the Surge must have looked like an absolute winner, but the execution just doesn’t quite live up to the promise.